New York (CNNMoney) - Fresh off a speech in Phoenix in which he outlined his vision for the housing market, President Obama took to the web Wednesday to answer questions from Americans wondering what the government can do to help.

Taking questions submitted online in an event live-streamed in cooperation with real estate site Zillow, Obama reiterated in broad terms his support for scaling down government-backed housing finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a key theme of his speech in Phoenix on Tuesday.

soundoff(36 Responses)

Sniffit

"bush even tried to get it stopped "

" I had supported policies to expand homeownership, including down-payment assistance for low-income and first-time buyers. I was pleased to see the ownership society grow. ...: This precarious structure was fated to collapse as soon as the underlying card—the nonstop growth of housing prices—was pulled out. That was clear in retrospect. But very few saw it at the time, including me."
-Dubya

August 7, 2013 04:40 pm at 4:40 pm |

tom l

@The Real TP,
Just look at Mr. SniffIT comment earlier in this comment section. Did anyone bring up race with regards to President Obama? No. But Sniffy decided to bring it in and then come up with his own lines. You must have some latent form of racism to come up with this post:

"Treats from the Teatroll protesters outside where Obama was speaking in AZ today:

"Bye Bye Black Sheep!"

"Impeach the Half-White Muslim!"

“He’s 47 percent N-gro!”

How about this one when not one thing was said about race in the Putin article:

"Indeed it is. Putin doesn't like him for the same reason most of the RWNJs in this country don't like him...and we know EXACTLY what that is."

If looking at disparate impact, historical record, calls for changing the electoral college, the specific intent of the laws as evidenced by their targeted nature (which IDs are permissible versus which get excluded, geographic areas of effect, and even blatant admissions like emails between state legislators that get admitted into court), etc., is bigotry, then sign me up. I guess that makes me some big objective fact-relying historically informed bigot.

Your excuse with this right wing claptrap about "soft bigotry of low expectations" is garbage. It's a trite and pithy platitude fed to you by red state talking point factories and racists looking for rationalizations. All across this country and throughout this country's history, the methods the GOP/Teatrolls have been implementing in a flurry over the past couple years, out of fake concern over the 100% debunked myth of pervasive "voter fraud," were used and were effective at reducing targeted groups' voting turnout and diluting their voting power...disenfranchising minorities by the thousands and millions. It's come back because the demographic shifts have finally reached the tipping point AND THE GOP/TEATROLLS ARE TERRIFIED because they've spent the past 60+ years alienating every minority group in the country. Well, newsflash, their recent efforts to attenuate minority voting rights is sealing that deal. Please proceed...and see where it gets ya.

August 7, 2013 04:50 pm at 4:50 pm |

The Real Tom Paine

-tom l

@The Real TP,
And the obsession with race continues from Mr. Sniffit. You are so all consumed with race that I believe I must be correct in my assessment that you have some latent racism inside of you. There can be no other explanation. Earlier you said that the only reason Putin doesn't like Obama is because he is black (which he isn't, by the way. He's a white-African American). Man, you really need to see a psychiatrist. You must really hate yourself (or probably love yourself since you harbor such feelings of hate and can't act on them).

In the great words of William Shakespeare: Me doth think thy protest too much.
***************
To put things into perspective, Sniffit was commenting on Rick McDaniel's post because Mr. McDaniel recently stated his belief that Abraham Lincoln was solely responisble for starting the Civil War. Mr McDaniel has a long history of making racially charged ( and sometimes patently wrong) comments. Just thought I would mention that.

Actually, he does it with most of his comments. I promise you he has real deep seated issues that I don't think he even recognizes. He brings race in to every single discussion with regards to President Obama and makes assumptions about points I make and brings race into it. The best one was when I was talking about the voter registration laws and said they are capable enough to get an ID; his response was that I thought they were lazy in not getting an ID when I never made any such reference nor any point remotely near what his assumption was. He has the soft bigotry of low expectations, as well, which could be the most racist part of him. He needs help. Perhaps he should go to the class with Riley Cooper.
***************
Wish all due respect, I disagree. Any mention of race makes conservatives uncomfortable, even when a conservative has said nothing: perhaps they feel they lack legitimacy on the issue, I'm not sure. Sniffit is not a racist, but I have seen enough horribly racist commens out of conservative posters on here to see that its a real problem. Do I think whites are the only ones with racial issues? Nope. You can have a legit disagreement with Sniffit, but I would not call him a racist anymore than I would regard you as one.

August 7, 2013 04:52 pm at 4:52 pm |

Lynda/Minnesota

Dominican mama 4 Obama

Hey there ... saw your comment from this a.m. Just to let you know, I am available as luggage carrier. But, seriously: do have a wonderful trip and we'll catch you later. Godspeed.

August 7, 2013 04:58 pm at 4:58 pm |

Data Driven

@Sniffit,

Thanks for the Dubya quote, but I'm sure it'll go through one eyeball and out the other of the conservatives here. They have convinced themselves that Bill Clinton, solely, was responsible for the housing. Whenever I've brought up Bush's "ownership society" to these folks, I get howls of defensive outrage. Well, maybe they don't remember - all that was a decade ago and I suspect some of the posters here are quite young, judging from the tone of their posts.

August 7, 2013 04:59 pm at 4:59 pm |

Sniffit

"Did anyone bring up race with regards to President Obama?"

I'm free to call attention to the parts of Obama's AZ trip that the MSM chooses to bury when they do an article that simply skips the whole thing and moves on to the Zillow chat with a glib reference to the AZ speech. Just because it makes you cry sweet sweet tears of butthurt that I'm pointing out what you'd rather leave whitewashed doesn't mean I'm wrong. You don't like that it gets pointed out? Then stand against it instead of enabling it with your silence...or your support of those who pander to it. The 2 + 2 of the GOP/Teatrolls' tantrum over Obama isn't exactly hard to put together for those who've been paying attention....and no, I don't owe you a full recitation of the piles and piles of evidence that I'm right starting from the birthers and going through all the demographic statistics. It's all obvious to any who kept their eyes open.

Lol! And you mentioned my favorite show! 🙂 I'm really starting to like you DMFO. I may disagree with you politically (and I think you are too caught up in the partisan politics), but I certainly respect your opinion.

August 7, 2013 05:10 pm at 5:10 pm |

Lynda/Minnesota

Sniffit
"bush even tried to get it stopped "

" I had supported policies to expand homeownership, including down-payment assistance for low-income and first-time buyers. I was pleased to see the ownership society grow. ...: This precarious structure was fated to collapse as soon as the underlying card—the nonstop growth of housing prices—was pulled out. That was clear in retrospect. But very few saw it at the time, including me."
-Dubya
------------

Sniffit thanks for the quote. I've mentioned this time and again but for whatever reason, GOPerville ignores the implication good old George was discussing. The actual bill was termed "Zero Down Payment" or something similar. GW was quite puffed up in the chest proud when he signed it.

August 7, 2013 05:12 pm at 5:12 pm |

Sniffit

"Thanks for the Dubya quote, but I'm sure it'll go through one eyeball and out the other of the conservatives here. They have convinced themselves that Bill Clinton, solely, was responsible for the housing."

To be fair, Fannie and Freddie did play a role in helping inflate the bubble...nobody being serious will deny that because they did guarantee a lot of bad commercial paper....but the biggest damage to the economy was done with what took place on Wall Street...the bundling, securitization, creation of derivatives and hedge funds, fraudulent and negligent risk rating of the securities that led to bad underwriting when giant firms like AIG insured them and then the firms playing credit default swap games with them in hopes they could spin gold out of straw. They constructed a massive casino out of nothing but cards...and they all KNEW the risk while they pretended it didn't exist. Fannie and Freddie were busy building a woodpile that would someday collapse under its own weight...painful, but survivable...but Wall Street stole the kindling and ran off and started a forest fire, burning down half the countryside.